If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, chapter
5. I want to begin chapter 5 of Ephesians
this morning, but before I do, I want for us to read together
again the last verse of Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you." Everything that the believer is instructed
to do, especially how he's to behave, is drawn not just from
the Word of God, and it's drawn not just from the Gospel of Christ,
but it's drawn from his own experience of grace. Even as, you see that,
what he says there? Even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. All of these things that Paul
exhorts us to do is based on the assumption that God has saved
you. That God has saved you. Now,
if he hasn't, if that work of grace is not present, it's an
utter impossibility to do the things that he commands you to
do. Absolute impossibility. And it's an absolute waste of
time trying to set rules for natural men to teach them how
to walk with God and one another. In Titus chapter 2 and verse
11, the Apostle Paul says, For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men, not every man, woman,
and child, but to all who believe, to all that he was talking to,
to all those who have a hope in Christ. And it teaches them
to deny ungodliness. What does? That grace of God
that brought salvation. That grace of God in the gospel
of Christ and that experience of grace teaches us these things. We're not robots. We don't, you
know, people think, well, I, you know, if I could just, and
a lot of churches do this. They catechize their young people.
Now, I encourage you to bring your children with you to hear,
but we're not going to take them back in the back and catechize
them and give them a test, and then when they pass the test,
tell them they're in the kingdom of God. We're going to wait on
God to do His work. Let Him do the work. I can't
do it. He teaches us, both by the example
of Christ and by our own experience of grace, to deny ungodliness
and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly in this
present world. And I tell you, if you think
you can make some kind of decision to serve the Lord and then get
a little handbook, on duties, church duties, how to be a disciple. That's a big thing now in the
Church of Christ is to make disciples. And they got their little handbooks
and they'll come around and they have Bible studies and in-house
Bible studies and all that type of thing. And they teach you
how to be a disciple. I'm telling you, if you think
you can do that, get you some kind of little handbook to saintly
duties, these do's and don'ts, and walk godly in this present
world, you're in for a shock. You're in for a shock. You'll
either be shocked when God saves your unbelieving soul and discover
just how ungodly and just how unrighteous you really are. Or
you'll be shocked in that day of judgment when you bring up
all them things that that handbook told you to do and you thought
you did. And he tells you, depart from
me, I never knew you. Either way, you're going to be
shocked. You're going to be shocked. A believer's attitude and spirit
is the fruit drawn from the vine into which he's been grafted.
Turn with me over to John chapter 15. Now the unbelieving man can do
duties outwardly. He can do that. He can come to
church. He can read his Bible. And I
encourage you to do all of those things. Just don't start putting
labels on those things and calling them godliness and calling them
the fruit of the Spirit because these things are not the fruit
of the Spirit. He cannot produce this fruit. Now listen to this, John 15,
1. This is Christ speaking here. This is the master. He said,
I am the true vine and my father is the husband man. Every branch
in me, that is those who profess faith in me. Faith is what he's
talking about here. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. Cuts it off. Cuts it off. Not going to bury any fruit. Not going to love God. Not going
to have any joy of heart. Not going to have any peace.
You've all had fruit trees with big expectations, and this branch
will come out, and it leaves out, and it promises fruit, but
it never has any on it. After a while, cut it out. That's what he's tempted. He said, you're clean through
the word which I've spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine. No more can ye except ye abide
in me. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, ye
can do nothing. And this whole lesson here is
about saving faith and experience of grace produced in us who are
brought to faith in him, grafted into that vine by the true husband
man. And he's not talking here about
giving us some supernatural abilities to live a life of perfection
the way the Nazarenes and others teach. He's talking about principles
of grace established in us through this process. of regeneration
and faith, principles of the heart, experience of grace. It's not in his duties. Christian
fruit is not in the duties, church attendance, prayers, Bible reading,
and so on. The fruit of the Spirit, Paul
said, is love, joy, peace. It's not in doing. You see what
I'm saying? It's not in the doing. It's in
these principles of the heart. It's in the affections of the
heart. It's in the motives. It's love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, and faith. And it don't matter what else
you do if what I do is not attended with these fruits. I have no
purpose in the vine. The Father will cut it off. cut
it off. Let me give you some examples. This chapter is very familiar
with you. You can turn if you want to or you don't have to,
but 1 Corinthians chapter 13 where he talks about love. Now listen to this. I'm a preacher,
so I'll start with me. I'm a preacher. Now listen to
this. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and had not love, I am become a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. Don't matter how good I can speak.
Don't matter how good my illustrations are. It don't matter how true
what I say is. You see that? If I had not love,
this whole thing of preaching is worth That's what he's saying.
I've just become sounding, I'm just like a man standing up here
and he don't have the band, all he's got is the cymbal. And he
stands here and beats on that cymbal. Beats on that cymbal. Sounding brass, that's all it
is. How about education? How about
that man who knows? You can go to him and he knows.
I don't care what the question, he knows. He can just snap out
the answer, he can give it to you. He reads. He's an educated man. He's a
theologian. Listen to this. Though I have
the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and have faith to move even mountains and have not love. Listen. I'm nothing. Ain't that what
that says? Nothing. But I'm a gracious giver. Though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and give my body and martyrdom to be burned
at the stake, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. The
fruit of the Spirit is in the experience of grace that is the
result of the Spirit of God grafting us into the true vine. Without
me, you can do nothing. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1,
he said, here we go with the lesson, here's what he says,
Be ye therefore, based on that, based on this experience of grace,
based on these principles of heart, be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children. And walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. My friend, the only way to be
a follower of God is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
can't see God. You don't know God. The only
knowledge we have of God is in Christ. We follow him. If you follow him, you're followers
of God. Apart from Him, we know nothing
about God. And knowing God is eternal life.
That's eternal life. In John 3.16, he tells us that
God expressed His love for a world of lost sinners in that He gave
His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life. You want to know something about
the love of God? This is where you learn it, right
here. God gave his son. Is God love? Will God love? He gave his only begotten son.
Herein is love, John said, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And you cannot come to Christ
in saving faith and walk in that knowledge and be void of love.
It's an impossibility. That experience of grace and
coming to Him, we must come to Him as the Father set Him forth.
You see what I'm saying? You can't walk away from this
thing untouched. You can't walk away from this
thing with no experience. There is an experience to be
had. And I'm not talking about those warm feelings that go down
your back and all that kind of nonsense. I'm talking about an
experience where principles of grace are left in the heart. Look at the kindness of Christ.
How kind He was to the woman taken in adultery. Here she is. They threw her at His feet. He
who is holiness, righteousness, and justice threw her at His
feet. Now, if you be the Christ, what
are you going to do? Here's what the law said. What
do you say? What do you say? Oh, the kindness of Christ. How
kind He was to that woman. How kind he was with his dealings
with the Samaritan woman who thought she knew a lot and knew
nothing. How kind he was to that proud
Pharisee Nicodemus. Think about that. And tenderhearted,
how tenderhearted he was to Mary and Martha who doubted his love,
who put a question mark on his love. How tenderhearted he was
toward them. To Peter who betrayed him and
stood there on the bank. To Thomas who doubted him and
Philip who approached him in his ignorance. How kind and tender-hearted
Christ was to me. Think on that. How kind and tender-hearted
was He in His dealings with you. Kind. Oh, He was kind. We're
filled with ignorance, and filled with darkness, and filled with
sin, and filled with hate. How kind He was, and how patient,
and how long-suffering, how tender-hearted. We'd come to Him in our pains,
and ignorance, and darkness, and beg Him for some knowledge,
beg Him for some answers, beg Him for mercy. How tender-hearted
He was. He heard. That's what He said
about Israel down there, crying in Egypt. He heard their cries.
He heard their cry. Walk in love, Paul said, as Christ's
love does. Freely, undeserving, with long
suffering. How often should we forgive somebody? What if this guy makes a mistake
ten times in a row? Get tired of it, don't you? Huh? You gonna put a limit on it?
Is it seven times? That's what the disciples said.
How many times we have to put up with them? Seven times? Seventy
times seven and seven times that. In other words, as often as the
occasion presents itself. How many times? How often does
the Lord forgive us? Huh? We can't get through 10
minutes, can we? Find yourself, say something,
find yourself with your head bowed. Try to explain something
that comes out sideways, you got your head bowed. I don't
care what it is you're going to do. Somebody ask something,
you're impatient with them, your own children. You see what I'm saying? Now
he said, you walk that way. You walk that way. walk as children, heirs of grace
and glory, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. I tell you,
I look around and I see folks scrambling after things, and
I do it myself. I'm not trying to put myself
exempt from you or anybody else. But we look at things here as
though these things are going to last forever. They're just
just a vapor. They're going to be gone. They're
going to be gone. God's going to burn them up.
He's going to burn them up. We're heirs. Are we? Are we heirs? Heirs of God? Heirs of everlasting life? Heirs of God? Heirs of heaven? Heaven's glory? and walk in love. In Romans chapter 5 verse 8 it
said, but God commendeth His love toward us, that is all that
believe, all that's been grafted into this man, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The very ones who shouted
for Barabbas, give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas, Those very
ones who mocked him and laughed at him while he died, 3,000 of those men and women were saved
on the day of Pentecost. And our Lord hung on that cross,
listening to their jeers and cries and scowls. And some of them may have been
the very ones that slapped him. It don't say who was saved. It
said 3,000 souls. It don't really matter. But our
Lord hung on that cross, and I've often wondered what in the
world He was talking about when He uttered these words. That's
the ones He was talking about. He said, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. They know not what they do. That's
love. He died for us while we were
yet enemies. Enemies. Oh, God, teach me how to walk
that way. Teach me how to love my enemies. That man, John, that you can't
stand, that might be one of God's elect. And here we are just bowing
up and scowling at him and won't have nothing to do with him and
won't speak to him and cut him off, just cut him off. That might
be one of God's elect. Could be. Could be. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Christ reconciled God to us while
we were yet shaking our fist in His face. Now walk in love,
He said, as I love you. Ephesians 5, verse 3. But fornication
and all uncleanness covetousness, let it not be once named among
you as becometh saints." Believers were not always saints. They
were right out there. Paul said we were children of
wrath even as others. We did the same thing they did. That same lust, all those practices,
those habits, we dislike them. Dislike them. Men or believers were not always
saints. They lived their lives brought
up in different backgrounds, some in rank paganism, some of
them raised in religion, some of them raised in rank paganism. And that's the case here at Ephesus.
They were raised in rank paganism. Things like fornication and covetousness
and uncleanness were common. They were acceptable types of
behavior in that society. What the Apostle Paul is doing
here is pointing out these things for what they are. You might
think, well that's just ridiculous. Everybody knows that these things
are wrong. Do they? Let me give you an example. Homosexuality was rampant in
Sodom and Gomorrah. Romans chapter 1 tells us about
this. This is one of the definite signs
of reprobation, God give them up to do that which is inconvenient. Now, that place just happened,
lightning hit somewhere and that place accidentally burned down
or did God burn it up? He said he burned it up, didn't
he? That was his judgment. Do you know what they're calling
homosexuality in our day? Alternative lifestyle. In a few more years, it's going
to be as common as marriage in our country. Now you wait and
see if what I'm telling you is not true. If God doesn't intervene
and change things in this society, those things which are looked
upon as rank paganism are going to be commonly accepted in this
country. They are right now to a large degree. They're already
softening the names of it. When I was a kid, it was shameful
even to say the name of what it was. And then when I was a
teenager, they began to change a little bit. And now it's just
almost common. Almost common. What Paul's doing
here is telling you this ain't common. This is ungodly. This
is not becoming of the saints. Becoming of. And these things, many of which
were commonly practiced here in Ephesus, were condemned of
God and not to be continued by those who profess Christ. And
these things were then and are now unbecoming of believers.
Verse 4, neither filthiness. This has to do with obscene and
indecent behavior. Foolish talking. I honestly believe
that this here is talking about vulgar language, or at least
it's included in it. And it also has to do with senseless,
meaningless, idle chitchat. Just stuff that's, it's meaningless. It has no purpose. It has no
end. It's just foolishness. Things
that appeal only to the fledge. And this don't mean that we're
not allowed to laugh, but I'm taking this in the same light
as the things that he's been talking about, this vulgar jesting
and senseless idle jesting. And especially during times of
worship and fellowship, which is another thing that he's talking
about here. He's talking about the saints
as they come together to worship the saints as they fellowship
with one another and their relationships with one another. Just don't
practice these things. They're ungodly. They're ungodly. And then he says these things
which foolish jesting, the telling of off-color jokes and so on,
which are not convenient. And the word here don't mean
handy. That's what we think when we say something convenient means
it's right here near at hand. That's not what this word means.
This word means that which is becoming of the saints. Those
things which are not becoming, not suitable. Anything that's
unsuitable to the character of God and the character of God's
saints is unbecoming for them to practice. But rather, he says,
give thanks. Give thanks. I tell you, of all
that dwell on the face of this earth, we of all people ought
to be thankful. We all spend our days being thankful. Thankful. God could have just
left you like you was. He didn't have to call you. He
didn't have to send somebody here to preach to you. He could
have left you just like he did the thousands around you. He
could have just left you to yourself. You'd went down there and you'd
have heard them out down there with the drums and the guitar
singing, I'll Fly Away. meet mama in glory land and you've
been patting your foot and clapping your hands and praising God and
thanking you, going out to meet God. He could have just left
us, but he didn't. He called us out. And so he tells
us, come out. Come out from amongst them. Don't
act like them. Brother Mahan even went so far
as to say, don't wear their fashions. Whatever's fashionable to them,
don't put it on. Don't put it on. We ought to be thankful. That which will have the greatest
impact. Now hear me. You've got relatives. You've got friends. You've got
mothers. You've got fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins. You've
got people all around you that don't know God. That which will
have the greatest impact on them is not what you tell them. They
can't hear what you're saying. The thing that's going to have
the greatest impact on them is the life you live before them.
Now, that's the truth. These men can see how you live. They can see how you act. They
can see those things. They can enter into those things.
They can understand those things. And when they see a visible change
in you, they might be hungry to come and find out why. It
just might be. Verse 5, For this you know, that
no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now this
is not talking about what we were or did before conversion
or what some who did believe. slipped and did on occasion like
David and Lot and many others. This is talking about those who
profess faith in Christ but continue on in their ungodly habits and
way of life. That's what this is talking about.
These are the dogs who return to their vomit. These are the
clouds that promise rain but pass over like they did yesterday
and not a drop comes out. These are those bright shooting
stars that he talks about over there in the book of Jude. These stars, they flame up and
they're bright and you see them and they're moving. They're wonderful
to watch out there in the night sky. And then they go into darkness
forever. That's what he's talking about
here. No believer is left in his sins. The strong man is first
bound, and then his house is foiled by the Lord. In Revelation
22, verse 10, he saith, listen to this, John said, he saith
unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book,
for the time is at hand. What time? That time of judgment. That time when time shall be
no more. That time when All the graves
are going to be opened. And all men called out stand
before Him. That's this time He's talking
about healing. Now listen to what He says here in verse 11.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, Let him
be holy still. My friend, I'd be doing you a
great injustice if I didn't tell you this. Men die exactly how
they live. Now that's the truth. They die
as they live. They either die in faith and
die in hope and die in rejoicing and die in joy and die in peace
and rest. Or they go out to meet God just
exactly the way they lived. One or the other. One or the
other. This world and its lusts and
pleasures and idols are your happiness. Is that what makes
you happy? What makes you happy? What brings you joy? What brings
you peace? Where's your treasure? Where's
your heart? That's what he's saying. Men
die as they lived. And if this world and its lusts
and pleasures and idols are your happiness here, they're going
to be your happiness still. Ain't nothing going to change.
Nothing going to change. But if Christ in heaven and the
glory of God be your lot, that'll be your lot forever. And to live
as a believer is to have a new heart, new motives, new affections,
and new habits. And if all I have is words, all
I have is words. You understand what I'm saying?
This is what Paul is teaching here. He went to great lengths in chapter
1 and chapter 2 and chapter 3 to show us the basis of this thing
and the miraculous work of God in this thing and the means that
God has set apart to accomplish it. He gets over in chapter 4
and chapter 5 And he starts telling us the effects of these things.
Paul told these people in chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, he said,
I know your election of God, because my gospel came not unto
you in word only, but in power and the Holy Ghost. You become
followers of us and the Lord. You became examples to all that
believe. You promoted the gospel of Christ,
you turned to God from your idols, and you endure whatever persecutions
and sufferings this world has for you, and patiently wait for
God's Son to return. That's the effect. That's how
he knew that gospel came unto them in power. Because it had
an effect on their life. And if it has no effect on your
life, you've not yet learned Christ. You've not yet learned
Christ. Father, use the message this
morning. Use the lesson. Let us go home and look at it
again, over and over. In our minds, daily, let us rehearse
these things that You've done for us, this great love and mercy
and kindness and these things, and seeing these things. Give
us the heart to walk in the light of them. Live before me. not only professing Christ, but
confessing Christ in our life. We ask You for Christ's sake.
Amen.